Kyiv: Russia attacked cities across Ukraine on Monday with a missile barrage that killed more than three dozen people and ripped open a children’s hospital in Kyiv, an assault condemned as a ruthless attack on civilians.
Dozens of volunteers including hospital staff and rescue workers dug through debris from the Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital in a desperate search for survivors after the rare day-time bombardment, AFP journalists on the scene saw.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched dozens of missiles toward five towns and cities in southern and eastern Ukraine as well as the capital.
At least 37 people were killed, including three children, with more than 170 wounded, Zelensky said.
The strikes damaged nearly 100 buildings, including multiple schools and a maternity hospital, he added.
The air force said air defense systems downed 30 projectiles.
“It is necessary to shoot down Russian missiles. It is necessary to destroy the Russian combat aircraft on its bases. It is necessary to take strong steps that will not leave any security deficit,” Zelensky said ahead of a NATO summit where arming Ukraine’s air defenses is expected to top the agenda.
Zelensky called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council over the barrage and urged Ukraine’s allies to deliver “a stronger response” to Russia’s attack.
Following the strikes, US President Joe Biden on Monday promised “new measures” to boost Ukraine’s air defenses.
“Together with our allies, we will be announcing new measures to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses to help protect their cities and civilians from Russian strikes,” Biden said.
UN rights chief Volker Turk condemned the “abominable” Russian strikes, while the body’s chief Antonio Guterres said attacking medical facilities was “particularly shocking,” according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
The United States denounced “another savage missile attack on civilians,” while the European Union slammed Moscow for its “ruthless” actions.
France’s foreign ministry called the bombardment of a children’s hospital “barbaric,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the attack as “abhorrent” and Japan’s government spokesman “strongly condemned” the strike.
Kyiv said the children’s hospital had been struck by a Russian cruise missile with components produced in NATO member countries and announced a day of mourning in the capital.
Russia hit back claiming the extensive missile damage in Kyiv was caused by Ukrainian air defense systems.
Moscow said its forces had struck their “intended targets,” which it added were only defense industry and military installations.
Medical staff acted quickly to move patients and personnel to the facility’s basement after air raid sirens rang out over Kyiv on Monday.
“For some reason, we always thought that Okhmatdyt was protected,” said Nina, a 68-year-old hospital employee.
“We were 100 percent sure that they would not hit here,” she told AFP, describing the frantic rush as staff moved children with IV drips to the bunker.
Officials said the attack had also damaged several residential buildings and an office block in Kyiv where AFP reporters saw cars on fire and shredded trees in charred courtyards.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said three of its electrical substations had been destroyed or damaged in Kyiv. Russian strikes on electricity infrastructure have already halved Ukrainian generation capacity in recent weeks compared to one year ago.
Russian forces have repeatedly targeted the capital with massive barrages since invading Ukraine in February 2022, and the last major attack on Kyiv with drones and missiles was last month.
The emergency services said 22 people were killed in Kyiv on Monday, including at both medical facilities hit in the attack, and that another 72 had been wounded.
In Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rig, which has been repeatedly targeted by Russian bombardment, the strikes killed at least 10 and wounded more than 41, officials there said.
In Dnipro, a city of around one million people in the same region, one person was killed and six more were wounded, the region’s governor said, when a high-rise residential building and petrol station were hit.
And in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have taken a string of villages in recent weeks, the regional governor said three people were killed in Pokrovsk — a town that had a pre-war population of around 60,000 people.
“This shelling targeted civilians, hit infrastructure, and the whole world should see today the consequences of terror, which can only be responded to by force,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, wrote on social media.
Zelensky and other officials in Kyiv have been urging Ukraine’s allies to send more air defense systems, including Patriots, to help fend off deadly Russian aerial bombardment.
“Russia cannot claim ignorance of where its missiles are flying and must be held fully accountable for all its crimes,” Zelensky said in another post on social media.
Russian missiles kill 37 in Ukraine, gut Kyiv children’s hospital
https://arab.news/zskw4
Russian missiles kill 37 in Ukraine, gut Kyiv children’s hospital

- President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched dozens of missiles toward five towns and cities in southern and eastern Ukraine as well as the capital
- At least 37 people were killed, including three children, with more than 170 wounded, Zelensky sai
US-backed Gaza aid group names evangelical as chairman

- Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war with neighboring Arab states
UNITED NATIONS: The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Tuesday named as its executive chairman an American evangelical Christian leader who has publicly backed President Donald Trump's proposal for the United States to take over the Palestinian enclave.
The appointment of Rev. Dr. Johnnie Moore, a former evangelical adviser to the White House during Trump's first term in office, came as health officials said at least 27 people died and more than 150 were injured trying to reach a GHF aid site.
"GHF is demonstrating that it is possible to move vast quantities of food to people who need it most — safely, efficiently, and effectively," Moore said in the foundation statement. "GHF believes that serving the people of Gaza with dignity and compassion must be the top priority."
HIGHLIGHTS
• GHF says it has delivered some 7 million meals in Gaza
• UN refuses to work with GHF, says aid distribution militarized
• Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid, Hamas denies it
The GHF began operations one week ago under a distribution model criticized by the United Nations as the militarization of aid. The GHF says so far it has given out seven million meals from so-called secure distribution sites. It uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get aid into Gaza.
The U.N. and aid groups have refused to work with the GHF because they say it is not a neutral operation. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher has said it "makes aid conditional on political and military aims" and uses starvation as "a bargaining chip."
The appointment of Moore could fuel U.N. concerns, given his support for the controversial proposal Trump floated in February for the U.S. to take over Gaza and develop it economically. After Trump proposed the idea, Moore posted video of Trump's remarks on X and wrote: "The USA will take full responsibility for future of Gaza, giving everyone hope & a future."
'BAD GUYS'
The U.N. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the appointment of Moore, who has accused the U.N. of ignoring "bad guys" stealing aid in Gaza. The U.N. has long-blamed Israel and lawlessness in the enclave for impediments getting aid into Gaza and distributing throughout the war zone.
Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies. In a reference to the new GHF-led aid model, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said Israel was "taking control of food distribution" in Gaza.
"The @UN & others should clean up their act & work with America," Moore posted on May 26. "Surely, these old U.S. & E.U.-funded humanitarian orgs won't let people starve in exchange for being 'right' when they know what they have done hasn't worked & has, in fact, made a terrible war worse?"
The war in Gaza has raged since 2023 after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in an October 7 attack and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, and Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Moore visited Israel about three months after the 2023 Hamas attack and wrote: "Never have I seen such horror."
Just a couple of weeks later, he posted a video titled "Come visit beautiful Gaza," which sought to portray Gaza as a tourist destination if it wasn't for Hamas militants. Trump has said Gaza has the potential to be "The Riviera of the Middle East."
The United Nations has long endorsed a vision of two states living side by side within secure and recognized borders. Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war with neighboring Arab states.
Musk calls Trump’s big beautiful bill ‘a disgusting abomination’

- Musk left his formal role in the administration last week as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk on Tuesday amplified his criticism of the sweeping tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump has been pushing fellow Republicans in Congress to embrace, calling it a “disgusting abomination” that will increase the deficit.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” the billionaire Musk wrote in an X post. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
The broadside comes as Trump pressures Republicans in the Senate to approve the legislation he dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” which has been passed in the House of Representatives.
Trump appointed Musk, the world’s richest person, to lead a government cost-cutting and efficiency drive, during which he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the massive savings he had sought.
Musk left his formal role in the administration last week as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end.
Trump administration moves to fast-track firings of federal workers for misconduct

- The proposal would allow agencies to refer misconduct cases to OPM instead of going through the traditional disciplinary process
President Donald Trump’s administration moved on Tuesday to make it easier to fire federal employees for misconduct, the latest step in a broader effort to overhaul the civil service and shrink the federal bureaucracy.
The US Office of Personnel Management published a proposed rule that would allow the office, which acts as the federal government’s human resources department, to direct other agencies to fire employees for conduct such as tax evasion, leaking sensitive information and refusing to testify in other workers’ disciplinary cases.
The rule would extend OPM’s existing power to designate job applicants as unsuitable for federal employment, to current federal employees, a change it said was necessary to hold government workers accountable to the public.
Federal workers have for decades been covered by an array of job protections, including the ability to contest firings by engaging in a lengthy administrative process.
The proposal would allow agencies to refer misconduct cases to OPM instead of going through the traditional disciplinary process. If OPM determines that removal of an employee is required, an agency would have five days to terminate them.
“Illogically, the government has far greater ability to bar someone from federal employment who has committed a serious crime or misconduct in the past than it does to remove someone who engages in the exact same behavior as a federal employee,” OPM said in the proposal.
The publication of the proposal kicked off a 30-day public comment period.
Since Trump’s second term began in January, the administration has moved aggressively to shrink the federal bureaucracy, including directing mass firings and layoffs and implementing changes to the civil service. Many of those policies have been met with court challenges and some have been temporarily blocked by judges.
OPM, which is closely linked to the White House, has played a key role in those efforts by attempting to give Trump more direct control of the federal workforce.
Many unions, Democrats and advocacy groups have said Trump’s various policies violate complex federal civil service and labor laws meant to regulate government employment and ensure that federal workers are insulated from political influence.
OPM on Tuesday said the policies agencies have followed for decades rely on overly cumbersome and restrictive procedures that protect misconduct.
“This arbitrary state of affairs seriously impairs the efficiency, effectiveness, and public perception of the Federal service,” the agency said.
Israel army vows to ‘protect maritime space’ as aid boat sails for Gaza

- The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily on Sunday and is carrying around a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it was ready to “protect” the country’s maritime space on Tuesday, after a boat organized by an international activist coalition set sail for Gaza aiming to deliver aid.
The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily on Sunday and is carrying around a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine.
“The (Israeli military) is prepared to defend the citizens of the State of Israel on all fronts — in the north, the south, the center and also in the maritime arena,” army spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said.
“The navy operates day and night to protect Israel’s maritime space and borders at sea,” he added at a televised press conference.
“For this case as well, we are prepared,” he said in response to a question about the Freedom Flotilla vessel, declining to go into detail.
“We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly.”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, launched in 2010, is a non-violent international movement supporting Palestinians, combining humanitarian aid with political protest against the blockade on Gaza.
The “Madleen” is a small sailboat reportedly carrying fruit juices, milk, rice, tinned food and protein bars.
“Together, we can open a people’s sea corridor to Gaza,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition wrote on X on Tuesday.
In early May, a Freedom Flotilla ship called the “Conscience” was damaged in international waters off Malta as it headed to Gaza, with the activists saying they suspected an Israeli drone attack.
Israel recently eased a more than two-month blockade on the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, but the aid community has urged it to allow in more food, faster.
Saudi Arabia congratulates Bahrain on election to UN Security Council

- Bahrain will begin its 2-year term as a nonpermanent member of the council on Jan. 1, 2026
- It was elected alongside Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia and Liberia
RIYADH: Saudi authorities congratulated Bahrain on Tuesday after the nation was elected to serve as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council for the term 2026-2027.
The election of the country “confirms the international community’s confidence in Bahrain’s ability to contribute effectively to strengthening international peace and security,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
The Kingdom wished Bahrain success in representing the interests of the Arab group of nations within the UN and in carrying out its duties as a member of the council.
Bahrain was elected alongside Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia and Liberia, all of which will serve two-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
The 15-member Security Council, which is responsible for maintaining international peace and security, consists of five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the UK and the US — plus 10 nonpermanent members elected by the General Assembly to serve staggered, two-year terms. Bahrain and the other newly elected nations will therefore join five existing nonpermanent members whose terms conclude at the end of 2026: Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia.